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Random Thought: If I say Nor’easter, how much time am I really saving?

This week’s sprawling 101-word story was inspired by a prompt generously supplied by an anonymous reader who only provided the initials O.M. (as in Olivia Morgan). Thanks, Olivia—oops—I mean thanks O.M. for the great prompt, which I had to shorten for brevity (but I know you’ll remember the whole thing). Here’s your story.

Famous English Battles

Entertaining visiting relatives, Edmund queued up for the London Eye when he was suddenly shoved from behind.

“The line’s moving, dumbshit,” Mac said (his name was on his shirt).

“And you, sir, are a male descendant of questionable heritage.”

“You calling me a son of a bitch?”

“Would a doltish rectum be more appropriate?”

Mac grabbed Edmund’s collar. “So now I’m a stupid asshole? You wanna go?”

Edmund’s jaw tightened. “Careful, pal, you’re about to get kneed in the nuts.”

Dumbfounded, Mac retreated. “Did you just propose striking my genitalia with your patella?”

Edmund smiled. “That’s one way to put it.”

Prompt: Unclean Troll

For those of you who don’t play around much with AI, here’s a brief peek behind the curtain. I usually use Gemini (Google’s AI tool) to generate the images for my stories. The more I do it, the better I get at generating better and more detailed requests (AI calls them prompts). Here was the first prompt I used when I asked Gemini to create an image to accompany this week’s story:

OK, Gemini, I’m looking for a very specific image, and if there’s anyone who can create it, I know it’s you. I’m looking for a scene with two men standing in line in front of the London Eye (or something that people will think is the Eye). One man looks like a refined Englishman, while the other is a rougher character, wearing a shirt that has his name (Mac) on it. It looks like Mac is glaring at the Englishman. Mac is not happy with this man for some reason. So, Gemini, think you can come up with something like this for me?

Here’s the picture Gemini generated.

Since my story mentioned Mac having a name tag, I really wanted the image to reflect that better than in the first attempt, so I followed up with this refined prompt:

That’s a great start, Gemini, but do you think you can remove Mac’s jacket and maybe give him a work shirt, like he’s a mechanic or something, and maybe his name is on a patch on his shirt? The rest looks perfect!

Gemini addressed my request perfectly, resulting in the image I used in the story. I know there are many reasons to be concerned about AI, and I completely get why artists are vehemently opposed to anything that can and is replacing the work of many creatives. I certainly don’t like the idea of machines being used to do things like tell stories—stuff that us humans have done since we first started painting on cave walls. Some of us are still painting on walls (sorry, Mom). Despite that, even us artists can find appropriate uses for these evil machines. Leave the busy work to them—especially when nobody else wants to do it.

NOVEL NEWS & NOTES…

Forgive the rerun, but because I’m still on hold with the latest draft of Questionable Characters, I continue to move forward on Bad Timing (book two in the series). Even though my broad story outline is not completely finished (I’m working on the big climax where it all wraps up), I’ve decided to change up my process somewhat, and I’m both anxious and excited about the new move.

I formed a small writing group with two other writers so we can critique each other’s work, brainstorm together, and hold our collective feet to the fire. One member describes herself as a recovering lawyer, while the other is a retired FBI agent. If you put us all together, you get the set up for a joke. “A lawyer, an FBI agent, and a cop walk into a bar…”

I bring all this up to say that my new direction is going to be that even though I don’t have a completely fleshed out beat sheet with every single scene in my book, I have a good enough idea of where it will go that I feel I can start writing actual chapters. This will keep me moving full speed ahead, and I’ll be getting my partners’ eyes on the early pages. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all goes. Naturally, I’ll keep you in the loop.

Thanks for listening.

Scotty out

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